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ELENA'S WAR: RUSSIAN WOMEN IN COMBAT
Samantha Vajskop
No historian of World War II would deny the critical contribution of the Soviet Union to victory over the Axis powers. Expanding into the Soviet Union was a fundamental part of Hitler’s foreign policy. In his Second Book, Hitler repeats over and over his main goal: to obtain lebensraum, or living space, in order to accommodate the German population.1 By merely looking at a map to see the size of the Soviet Union in the late 1930s, it becomes clear why Hitler looked to the Soviet Union in order to obtain that necessary lebensraum. The Red Army on the Eastern Front was fighting ninety percent of the Nazi forces at the height of German involvement in that theatre. The Soviet Union’s occupation of the Nazi forces in the Eastern Theatre led to the Allied ability and opportunity to strike in the West and ultimately open up a two-front war against Nazi Germany. That two-front war, in addition to Hitler’s unrealistic expectations for the army he spread too thinly, was what led to the surrender of the Nazis and the end of World War II in Europe.
Without the Soviet Union’s engagement of the German forces in the Eastern Theatre, World War II could have ended in disaster for the Allied forces and the rest of the world. The ability of the Red Army to hold off the Nazis can be attributed to a number of factors: the sheer size of the Red Army even after its purge; tenacious and brutal defense by the Soviets of their homeland; Hitler’s underestimation of both the durability of Stalin’s regime and the technological level of the Red Army, especially in light of the Soviet T-34 tank. However, one of the greatest factors contributing to the success of the Soviet Union in holding off the German army is one that is often overlooked: the involvement of Soviet women. While their actions and involvement have been addressed by a number of authors and researchers,2 the fact that their involvement was necessary to the victory of the Red Army over the Nazi forces is not directly addressed. In fact, it would have been considerably more difficult, if not impossible, for the Red Army to hold the Nazis without the Soviet women’s involvement.
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